Go ahead. Pile on.
- I think the Grateful Dead is one of the most overrated bands of all time.
- I think there should be a special place in hell for mean people — on Earth.
- I think folks should stop worrying about how offended they are at every little thing, and try to concentrate more on enjoying life, because it’s too dang short.
- I think the bad guys win way too often.
- I think mega-churches should render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.
- I think people who refuse to see the evil of Common Core State Standards and its high-stakes testing are deliberately, willfully (and therefore unforgivably) ignorant.
- I think a lot of discipline problems at school would go away if a big ol’ alligator-arm principal was allowed to throw a kid or two up against a locker, like in the old days.
- I think all political parties should be disbanded, defunded, and prohibited from ever forming again. And go back to popular vote for the presidency.
- I think deregulation of the airline industry was a bad idea. Say it with me: ol·i·GOP·o·ly
- I think that before anyone complains about anyone else’s profession, the complainer must first spend a year at the job in question.
Bring yer own! Set, go. 
If I may respond:
#2. There is such a place. It’s called Hackensack. I spent some time there and can say this with total conviction.
#5. I wonder how many of our economic problems would be solved if such entities were taxed as corporations, just like the rest of us poor souls.
#6. One has to question if these pro-CC people aren’t on the payroll somewhere.
I will add my own list, but at another time. It’s my birthday and snarking is forbidden.
PK-
Stoking up on the oxygen so I can blow out all those candles!
Hackensack, lol. You know, I’ve never been, and that’s a shame. I’ve heard everyone should experience the whole of Bergen County before they die, so death would appear less frightening. Hahaha
#5 — I was sure you’d have an opinion on that!
I hope your birthday was spectacular, and that the candle-lighting brought the fire wagon! Back to the old grind now…
This one should be especially popular: I think people who are parents should be banned from telling people who are not parents that they ‘just don’t understand’ how hard it is to raise a child and that therefore their opinion isn’t relevant. If experience is the key requirement to be able to discuss a topic, most ‘parents’– and painfully so, the most opinionated ones– would find they couldn’t comment on a host of topics, from foreign policy to sports to the energy crisis to evolution to cancer research and beyond, chiefly because they, not being scientists or diplomats or analysts, lack the crucial element of hands-on experience that– so long as we’re talking about raising kids– they find so irreplaceable.
If a non-parent were to give me advice on how to raise my child, I wouldn’t tell him that his opinion is irrelevant; rather, I’d tell him that parenting sits on a great wide spectrum, and different styles and choices for bringing up children are — for good or ill — an intensely personal issue. On the other hand, I’ve received and benefited from parenting advice from friends who were not parents, but who were “outside the situation” enough to have some unfettered perspective. I liked that!
That’s not so with teaching, for instance, where we live under increasingly rigid and ridiculous expectations and constraints (inflicted upon us by both government and union). Therefore, the ante is jacked up stupidly high, and we’re expected to deal with mini-humans as if they were factory objects, but we’re still looked upon by the GP as spoiled brats who want easy jobs. I’m less likely to take advice from cost accountants or insurance salesmen on that score, as they cannot possibly see things from my end of the pool unless they’re standing in it with me. I’m sure that’s true for other occupations as well.
How much time and space do I have? OK…OK, briefly:
1. I think all PAC and special interest money needs to go away, even then I am not sure American politics can be saved. Regardless of Party affiliation, politics in America has been corrupted by the highest bidder.
2. Regarding politicians, their retirement benefits should match the number of years of their service and no longer be lifetime benefits (including former Presidents). Any crime they are convicted of while in their elected Office would immediately sever those benefits.
3. Those who perpetrate crimes against women and children need to be dealt with swiftly and harshly. Really harshly! Really, really harshly!
4. I think those who believe that Government funded and regulated Healthcare is a good idea should have to have a surgical procedure scheduled and enacted upon by the VA…go ahead, I dare you! Going on seven months and waiting!
5. I think all the screaming, chest pumping and dancing for successfully completing a routine play in any sport has reached a level of idiocy that is hard to watch. News flash…it’s why you are paid millions!
6. I think the older I get the more the simplistic “little things” increase in importance and value in my life. I wish I had embraced that better and much earlier as I raced toward all the accumulating.
7. I think that those who determine that Librarians, Music teachers, Art teachers, Janitors, Teacher Aides, Shop teachers are all expendable and therefore cut from School District funding exhibit a moronic level that is hard to comprehend. The dollars extracted from school budgets should be the same percentage extracted from Legislators salaries and benefits. I find the old axiom true, if you want to know what is important to folks look at their checkbooks and their calendars. The importance of education has been regulated to a fiscal line item…that is sad for this Grandparent.
Happy Birthday PK!!!!
#5 — Remember a time when they weren’t paid kajillions, and they still didn’t do those ridiculous dances in the end zone? Regardless, we have Elmo to blame for that.
#7 — Preach it! Why have things like art and PE and music when you can hit up your already-shrink-wrapped budget for eight figures on useless standardized tests? And then evaluate your teachers based on the scores?
#4 — The Thriller has told me on more than one occasion that back in the 70s and 80s (when he was full time Navy), that he was waaaay less than impressed with the VA system. I’m sad to hear how little things have improved over the last 40 years.